The Red Dwarf (Le Nain Rouge) [VHS]

First time Belgian director Le Moine weaves a grotesque, allegorical tale around the diminutive Lucien Lhotte (Jean Yves Thual), a dwarf who writes fraudulent love letters for an unscrupulous law firm to use as false evidence in divorce cases. When he is called upon to draft scurrilous prose for the firm's largest (in both senses of the word) client - the fading opera diva Countess Paola Bendoni (Anita Ekberg) - he stages a daring seduction that lands him in the arms and bed of the ample singer. However, to Lucien's dismay, their love is fleeting. When the Countess takes back her philandering husband, Lucien descends into a downward spiral of rage, despair and depraved vengeance. But as his inner demons overtake him, a blossoming friendship with a naive young trapeze artist (Michel Peyrelon) offers possible salvation.